Welwick House

The Society began its life in 1913 at Welwick House, a large establishment which was located on the corner of the site which is now Hillington Square and All Saints’ Street. Welwick House was also the site for Lynn’s first museum founded in 1844 by members of the Lynn Conversazione and Society of Arts who wanted “the establishment of an institution so well calculated to improve the taste of the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood, and particularly the rising generation; as well as to afford a source of continued amusement and gratification to those persons who had already paid attention to scientific pursuits.”

The grand opening of the Lynn Museum in 1904

The museum at Lynn was the second established in Norfolk. Its first home was a hired house in Union Street, subsequently known as “Welwick House,” and “The Armoury”. After an elapse of ten years, larger and more convenient premises were necessary; a part of the Athenaeum admirably supplied the want. Owing to the sale of the premises (1898), the committee approached the Corporation, with the view of obtaining a public building, wherein the valuable collections in the custody of the trustees might be safely housed. The council not only promised a site for a proposed new building, but the adoption of the Museums Act to insure the support of the institution, as soon as £1,000 should be raised by voluntary subscriptions to defray the expense of its erection. At this juncture, the Union chapel, Market Street, which originally cost over £4,000, was secured for £1,600. After a further outlay of £1,400, this eligible property was adapted for the purpose. The “Museum and Art Gallery” was opened by Sir W. H. B. Ffolkes, bart., on the 14th of April 1904.Taken from The History of the Borough of King’s Lynn by Henry J Hillen

‘The Union Baptist Chapel’ by Henry Baines

Oil Painting: ‘The Union Baptist Chapel’ by Henry Baines. The building shown is now the Lynn Museum, and the view is from the direction of Baxters Plain, showing the rear of the Atheneum on the right, the conservatory and side of Paradise House, and the front of the Union Baptist Chapel, probably soon after it was built in 1859. Also in the picture are six figures showing good details of period dress, as well as a flock of sheep being driven to market, and street paving being laid.

Welwick House before demolition in the 1960s

From the census of 1881 it appears that Welwick House was used for Welwick House Ladies School.

2017/18 Season

For those of you who missed the
entertaining lecture given by Pat Knights after our 100th AGM, based on the history of the Society, it can be read as a pdf filehere.

You can now read a digest from the minute books of the Society dating from 1913.
These can be seen on theHistory of the
Society page.

KLeventcheck

Want to know what's on in Lynn?
Then go to KLeventcheck for a listing of local organisations & their events.

KL Community Cinema Club

An independent, not-for-profit, organisation set up to cater for film enthusiasts in the area. Aiming to show at least one film a month, with a varied programme of films & social events reflecting the tastes and interests of the members.

King’s Lynn Music Society

The Society offers eight monthly recitals and illustrated talks in the Assembly Room of the Trinity Guildhall (Town Hall) in
Saturday Market Place.

Three people a day die in need of a transplant due to a shortage of people being willing to donate organs

The speaker was welcomed by our chairman. Mr de Bernieres started by saying that he hoped to convert any scientists in the audience to poetry. He stated that most people don’t know how, or why poetry works. His idea of poetry is that it is language made musical. He pointed out that, in the west, poetry was, initially recited to a lyre, as in Greece. Thus poetry and music were one.

In England poetry and music coincided in ballads of seven to nine syllables. In the eighteenth century it was possible to buy ballads on contemporary topics which could be sung to old tunes.

At the end of the twentieth century some poets felt constrained by conventions such as rhyming. G.M.Hopkins, for example, used ‘sprung rhythm’ to catch the mood of poetry.

Mr. De Bernieres talked of the different types of metre used in poetry. He added that rhyme, though not an integral part of poetry, nevertheless makes a poem easier to remember.

Alliteration (repetition of consonant sounds) was used heavily by Anglo-Saxons. Assonance (recurring vowel sounds) can also be used. Tennyson’s ‘The Eagle’ uses both.

Since English, unlike Italian or Spanish, suffers from a lack of rhyming words, that is a good reason not to rhyme. Our speaker said he was unable to give a definition of poetry.

He answered with panache several interesting questions such as ‘How do you know when a poem is finished?’ Reply — ‘When it’s published!’ He concluded by stating that, in composing poetry, it is useful to know what rules poets have used, but you can then disobey them. Poetry must mean something, as well as being pleasant to the ear.

Our speaker was warmly thanked for the stimulating talk.

Lynda Jones

Résumé of "The West Runton Mammoth"

It is twenty seven years since the excitement of the discovery of freshly exposed parts of a mammoth skeleton in the Cromer Beds at the bottom of the cliffs at West Runton, after a storm had loosened material in 1990. Using media that included drone footage and video, Peter Sibbons of Poppyland Publishing, Cromer, gave the Society a comprehensive overview of how the remains were excavated over five years, as well as reconstructing the possible environment of the period and how this mammoth lived and died there.

This mammoth isn’t the better known woolly variety of later glaciations but a much larger species, Mammuthus trogontherii, which at 9-10 tonnes and 4m at the shoulder was considerably larger. The remains date from around 700,000 years ago. Pollen analysis of core samples from the site suggest that the temperature then was similar to how it is today. The environment the mammoth knew would have had a nearby river and similar flora and landscape features to that found at Upwell Fen today. The fauna would also be recognisable but with the addition of bears, rhino, hippo, spotted hyena, sabre-toothed cat and others. The Cromer Beds, which lie between Weybourne and Happisburgh where bones and shells have been found for nearly 200 years, were subsequently overlain by outwash from later glaciers which left them at the bottom of today’s cliffs.

Excavations in 1992 and 1995 showed the skeleton to be incomplete and scattered. Using methods of reconstructive archaeology and observations from current elephant and hyena behaviour, it is suggested that the remains had been trampled by other group members and scavenged by predators, as the bones were smashed in distinctive ways; teeth marks and coprolites indicate hyena activity. Also, the left knee showed pathology consistent with injury which may have weakened it.

The bones were all secured in plaster of Paris and removed from site. The remains have not been put on display yet, although the Castle Museum at Norwich is their likely destination. It is planned to launch the Deep History Coast Project this April and there will eventually be fourteen information points between Weybourne and Happisburgh. A DVD of the discovery and excavation of the mammoth based on about sixty hours of video taken at the time is to be produced in the future.